Saturday, September 22, 2007

The Shelby County Cookers "Bacon Plant" was established in 2004, in Harlan, Iowa. Its purpose was to make bacon easier to cook. Currently they are in the process of making bacon for the troops over in Iraq and in Afghanistan. They have to make the bacon just right so it will provide energy to the troops even in the hottest desert conditions. The producers of the bacon say it will be the best real food on the front since WW2, when bread could be mass produced. Military officials had there troops try the bacon and compare it to another type of easy bacon, and almost all of the troops liked the bacon from Shelby County. So they decided to give them a deal. Shelby County Cookers expect to start producing by September 26th 2007 and hopefully raise moral of the troops. They make up to 6000 cases of bacon a day, and that's enough to feed a town with 4500 people for breakfast if they ate normal size portions.In order for the bacon plant to get busy, they had to get orders from Wholesalers, packers, and food companies. Then the orders have to go to the lines where they are made to fit the specific needs of the buyer, so that they can then use it or sell it as they want. There are 15 slices of bacon in a case and they have to run through several inspectors in order to go to the stores. Then they are packaged and sealed, then they will have an average shelf life of 180 days without being in a refrigerator. SCC's deal with companies in Canada, Mexico, Japan, and within the United States. The bacon has to be seasoned to make the bacon taste better when it is sitting out on the self, so it doesn't lose its flavor. The bacon has to be inspected every 15 minutes so that they will pick out all the default items if they passed through the scanners, then it is off to the stores.